


In The Woods Somewhere

by GashouseGables



Category: Life and Death - Stephenie Meyer, Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Budding Love, Butch Eleanor, Butch/Femme, Carine is still a he/him lesbian, Eleanor Cullen alternate origin fic, Eleanor Cullen origin fic, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Family Feels, Found Family, Gen, butch Carine, even Edyth she's just a spinster, in which Eleanor and Alice have roughly the same origin story, we can offer you sparkling GNC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:40:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27667595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GashouseGables/pseuds/GashouseGables
Summary: Rosalie goes into the forest and finds herself a wife. Choas does not ensue, exactly - but it is definitely Fun For The Whole Family.
Relationships: Carine Cullen/Esme Cullen, Eleanor Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Comments: 12
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

Rosalie scented the vampire before the blood.

There was a strange, sharp scent about the air. It caused her to wrinkle her nose and wish she could still sneeze. Vampire venom. The scent made her wary – she didn’t know this area and she didn’t want to encroach on any territories. She felt a little off-kilter, suddenly, that she wouldn’t know how to speak to a nomad if she met one now.

The only others they met were through Carine and Carine wasn’t here.

 _Maybe that’s what he wants. To keep you stuck with him_. Rosalie doesn’t like the thought and she knows it relatively isn’t true. It’s that little hateful ball inside of her, all those horrible feelings that had become frozen in the transformation, along with the rest of her.

She scents the air again. The vampire was close by. But there were marks on the ground – long, dragging. They don’t go far. Rosalie studies them a moment longer before it clicks – human fingers. Someone had clawed the ground and dragged themselves across the dirt.

They led to a figure, crouched. Big, in brown clothes, a lumpy hat and thick boots on. They were covered in dirt and blood. The blood was strange – it was too like the vampire’s own scent. It _was_ their own blood.

Sharp eyes watch her – bright, vivid red. Eyes Rosalie had seen in the mirror, when she had first woken up.

A newborn.

She feels a spike of pity, and no small amount of nerves. Carine had told her ‘ _it is always a gamble – some do not survive the process. It always begins with only hope._ ’ But Rosalie looks at this wretch, alone, and thinks perhaps the doctor had spoken only for himself.

“Hello,” Rosalie says clearly. She remembers the most disconcerting thing about the first few days – not only the thirst, but the new instincts.

She had first hissed at Edyth – who had startled her by reading the questions out of her head and answering them. She had made her room her territory and knocking was no longer solely a courtesy.

The eyes watched her, and Rosalie noticed when they scented the air, smelling her. Their chest and arms were pronounced – quite muscular. They must have been strong as a human, athletic. She did not feel the urge to hiss at them.

“Are you an angel?” The voice was higher than Rosalie expected, and she realized their chest swelled with more than just muscle. A woman.

The pity turns in her belly – the next moment, Rosalie crouches in front of her, protective and gentle.

“Only if you are too.”

There is no other scent or trace of whoever turned her. There was no trace of any other living thing nearly at all. Avian, reptilian and mammalian had a habit of sensing them and fleeing. There was a line of ants marching in an oblivious line.

The woman’s face was square. A strong chin and a broad, flat nose. Her red eyes flutter, and Rosalie surmises that she’s handsome, very handsome.

The woman looks nervous, and concerned. “I’m dead, you see.” The woman explained, and Rosalie nodded, because she was right. “I set traps for my pa … there was a monster,” the woman looks behind her, as though said monster lay just out of sight.

Rosalie shakes her head. Whoever it was is long gone now. “Not anymore. But I’m here,” Rosalie says, and offers her a shy smile. “Unless you think I’m the monster?”

The woman smiles back, “Not at all!” she chirps and Rosalie reaches out slowly, to move the bucket-shaped hat from her brow. Rosalie had a strong urge to see this woman’s face better.

Short, curly hair is flattened to her head, dry with sweat she would never feel again. Rosalie reached up, pulling a few of the locks between her fingers. She was almost taken aback by how soft it was. _Like velvet_ _– as soft as a baby_.

Rosalie knows a bird takes off in flight, something brown and mundane, quite a distance away from them. The woman is on her feet – faster than she seems to have anticipated, as Rosalie refuses to laugh at the startled look that flashes across her face.

“Don’t you worry, angel – it won’t git ya if I can help it,” the woman growls, her teeth bared. Rosalie smells the sharp tang of the woman’s venom and stands to put a comforting hand on her arm.

“It’s alright – it’s just a bird,” she points out and pulls a little, prompting the woman to turn back to her. Rosalie found herself much more pleased when the woman was looking at her. She was also very surprised that the woman was even taller than she – Rosalie had always been a very tall girl herself.

“Angel,” the woman purrs, “we goin’ to heaven, baby?”

Rosalie chuckles ruefully, her lips more of a sneer than a smile. If only that was the happily ever after they got. “Not at all,” Rosalie was sorry to tell her.

Her big smile flickers and for a moment the woman looks incredibly sober. “So they put the best faces on their devils. I’m goin’ downwards,” the woman says grimly, but, after a moment, she squares her shoulders. “I ain’t sorry for it – any of the women. But don’t have ‘em follow me, they don’t deserve it,” she says, and the all of a sudden desperate earnestness fills Rosalie with jealousy. What other women?

Rosalie purses her lips. “Just focus on your angel for now,” she says tersely. Abashed, the woman nods and when Rosalie offers her hand she takes it. Her fingers were thick and blunt – they told of long, hard work.

“You’re not going down either – we need to go North,” Rosalie explains.

The woman nods, and Rosalie tugs her gently. They ran fast – Rosalie feels the newborn strength in her fingers gripping hers tighter almost than she can bear. But the ache almost comforts her – knowing the woman didn’t want to let go.

As they run, the woman says “Ariel” into the air.

“Who is that?” Rosalie asks her, half-thinking perhaps they were introducing themselves.

“Gabrielle?” the woman says, now openly musing.

“I don’t …” Rose glances back at the woman, frowning in confusion.

But she was grinning as she declares, “Muriel! I’m tryin’ to guess yer name, angel,” she explains. The trees whizz by them, with neither needing to so much as glance down at their feet to see what debris they leap over. “They your sisters, in the scripture.”

That makes them both laugh. “My name is Rosalie."

“ _Rosie,_ ” the woman replies in a sing-song voice. It was the first time Rosalie enjoyed the baby-ish nickname that until now she had never liked so much.


	2. Chapter 2

When they reach the house, the scent of the others inside makes the woman pull back.

"I don't like it," the woman says, and the crease on her brow says she doesn't know why. Rosalie could guess that the scent of unfamiliar vampires would have her hackles up.

Edyth opens the front door, but doesn't venture out. She looks disgusted. "What did you do?" She asks sharply.

Rosalie scoffs at her, but the growl that rips out of the curly-haired woman's throat makes her shush her. "It's alright. That's my sister."

The newborn frowns, as though pensive. "Must take after your plainer parent," she says. Rosalie is incredibly accustomed to being the prettiest, she's heard every variation of how appreciative the world was of her looks. But hearing it from this woman meant more – and a comment at Edyth's expense never hurt either.

Edyth sneers, and turns her head. "She's brought a hobo!" Carine steps out, in his brown trousers and carefully perched glasses, and watches as the newborn stiffens.

"I am not!" The woman snaps, and she comes marching up to the front door with the mismanaged speed of a fledging. Rosalie sees Carine tense and Esme appears beside them, her expression worried. Rosalie follows her and it all happens in a moment – as the woman's foot goes right through one of the porch steps. The splintered wood under her feet distracts her, and the newborn looks down at it, dismayed. "Oh – I'll fix that," she promises quickly, and glances around the house, no doubt growing fretful of the neat splendor. "Um, I'm good with repairs," she mutters, as Rosalie takes her elbow.

"It's no matter," Rosalie assures her, smiling gently and watches as the woman looks at her with instant adoration.

"Be careful," Carine says, his gaze on Rosalie. Rosalie glances at him, but refuses to reply to the suggestion.

Esme steps up to the door, all unfaltering and open surprise.

"What's this?" she asks, looking to Rosalie when Edyth points accusingly at her, though Esme reaches over and pats at Edyth's hand for her to lower it.

Rosalie tightens her grip on the woman's elbow, in case she felt skittish. But the woman only places her own hand over hers and keeps it.

"I found her." Rosalie says, feeling defensive. She wouldn't let the others take what was hers. She was more than capable of defending her territory. Though she was mildly nervous, that she had led some vampire to them that would come looking for their protégé. "I'll keep her with me."

"What?" Edyth snaps, looking confused and irritated

Esme's eyebrows go up, and her sweet face grows slightly amused. "And _who_ is she?" she presses.

Rosalie blinks as though startled with herself – and she was. "Oh! I'm not sure," Rosalie admitted, and turns to the woman, who perks up under Rosalie's gaze.

"Eli McCarty!" She announces eagerly, taking Rosalie's hand on her elbow and lifting her fingers to her mouth. Rosalie titters as the woman's mouth brushes over her knuckles, thoroughly charmed. She scowls as Edyth clears her throat loudly. But it brings back Eli's attention. "The full name's Eleanor, I suppose," she adds to the three crowding the door.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Eli," Esme says warmly. "This is Edyth Mason, and I'm Esme. My wife Carine," she says, laying a hand on each of the other woman in turn.

Eli mutters a hello, and turns back to Rosalie.

"They're my family," Rosalie tells her, and mentions for Edyth to move aside.

They all congregate in the living room, their speed assuring that they shift in the same direction simultaneously, though Eli ends up startled again at the smooth movement, though she follows just as seamlessly.

"Welcome to our home," Carine says diplomatically, but casts a curious glance to Rosalie, who doesn't move from Em's side. Eli murmurs the word 'lovely' and looks at them all with glowing red eyes. Underneath her scent, like a quiet current, was the smell of her human blood, still in her body. She was hours old, at best.

Carine frowns, and both Esme and Edyth exchange a worried look.

Rosalie pets Em's hand, who can sense the feeling in the room and looks worried. "I found her like this – she'd been in the dirt." Rosalie said defensively. She takes tugs on Em's hand. "What do you remember, from before I came to you?"

"I was very lonely," Eli began, a cheeky smile to Rosalie as the blonde squeezes her hand. _Not anymore_. Eli glanced at the others, and frowned, as though scrounging in the remnants of her human mind to remember her last moments. "I had to finish trapping – not many jobs around," she explains, brow furrowed. "There was something out there – no, someone … there was someone out there," Eli looked down at her unblemished, glittering forearm. "like … that." The hand not holding Rose's splayed against her own chest. "This, I suppose. Threw me to the ground like anything, it hurt … but it didn't hurt forever; I managed to get up, and there you were, angel." Eli smiles at her again, and Rose feels something that had been unruffled now settling in her chest.

Carine hums aloud "… If they'd had their fill, or something distracted them … perhaps they had over-estimated their capacity. Fed from a few others before her and lost interest. If they had the intention of making her – they would have stayed."

"It doesn't matter – she's mine," Rosalie is quick to snap, feeling a terrible prickle down her spine at the idea of being separated from Eli. She had no one else - it was obvious Rosalie had to keep her.

Eli nods amicably. "That I am, angel," she assures her, but then she frowns, looking out the large window to their equally large yard. "Well, as long as I can be. I'll have to be heading home, sooner or later."

Esme smiles, shaking her head just slightly. "Oh, not at all, dear," her tone pleasant, but regretful.

Eli inclines her head. "I'm sorry for it," she says, turning to Rosalie with a charming grin, "but my family would love to meet you."

Rosalie shares a troubled look with Esme as Edyth visibly begins to screw up her face into a wince, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I wish they could," she attempts to sooth her.

"But they will!" Eli nods and begins to head to the door, with the blindingly fast newborn speed nobody can twitch a finger to stop her. "I'll take my leave now," she passes the mirror in the entrance, and, caught in the light, the shimmer of her skin makes her stop and stare. Rosalie exchanges a worried look with Carine, who raises a had to keep her from going up to the transfixed woman. "… But I'll be back as soon as anything …" she murmurs faintly, brows drawn together as she stares at her reflection. She cocked her head to one side – she looked like a dog hearing a high-pitched noise.

Edyth purses her lips, looking almost annoyed, until she pushes her mouth upwards for just a moment – obviously fighting a wry smile. "She doesn't even recognize herself," she murmured to the others.

Carine steps up, making sure to move at only a slightly-faster-than-human pace to the dumbstruck woman at the door. "Eli … we know how hard it is to say goodbye," he says consolingly, "we have all had to do it too – but we'll be very glad to have you."

Eli looks at Carine with big red eyes and growing dismay. "… All they'll find is my broken knife, and a few of those rabbits …" Eli says, her voice tight as she blinked quickly, only for a furrow to appear on her brow. "Ma always said god at least gave her the mercy of giving her babies a last kiss good-bye before they were buried," she says her breath hitches with tears she'll never shed and Carine puts a hand on her shoulder. "I won't get one."


	3. Chapter 3

Carine takes Eli to eat something and Edyth goes with them, though mostly for curiosity’s sake.

Rosalie stays with Esme, sorting through whatever clothes would fit the bigger woman.

“She’s a very handsome girl,” Esme teases gently, smiling as Rosalie folded a few of Carine’s old union suits – all much too small for Eli.

Rosalie shrugs, “You know I’m used to the very best of things,” she replies and that prompts a laugh from both of them.

Esme rummaged through the church donations she was organising and makes a pleased hum at what she pulls out. “Here – knickers pants,” she says, showing Rosalie the baggy fabric.

Esme adds a few knit shirts and a sweater on top of the knickers and a pair of plus-fours. “Where on earth did you get those?” Rosalie asks her. She’s sure she had last seen her grandfather wear a pair of fours.

Esme shrugs lightly, “They’re Carine’s old pair. Must be thirteen years past now. I’ll take them up to be knickers too, if she wants.”

Rosalie goes to her own room with the clothes and dumps them on the couch. She surveys her own room. Sparse – Esme took to decorating after Elsie De Wolf for their house in Knoxville and Rosalie was sure the spartan elegant furnishings were at odds in the relatively small Southern town. She goes to her drawers and rearranges her clothes – enough to give Eli one drawer of her own. By the time Rosalie had designated space in the wardrobe and on her dresser, she could hear Eli exclaiming loudly, coming through the clearing. Rosalie watches them from the window.

Edyth looked distinctly upset. “It’s still taking a life!” she argues, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Eli shrugs her round shoulders, “I’ve killed animals for their meat – what’s so different about their blood?” she asks easily, wagging a finger under Edyth’s upturned nose, cautioning, “You don’t get to call working class men and women making their dinner ‘murderers’, you’ll sound like a spoilt little brat.” She looks up and brightens immediately when Rosalie opens the window and waves down at them. “Hello angel! I got two foxes and a rabbit – I’m gonna make you a pretty little fur,” she tells her, chest puffed out proudly.

“Thank you very much,” Rosalie replies as a reflex. She was more interested in the state of carnage the woman was in. Ripped, bloodied shirt beyond repair, and her trousers did not stand any better. Carine seemed to have been caught in the splashback, as his own sweater and neck were dribbling scarlet.

“Well!” Esme’s voice came from the back door, out of Rosalie’s line of sight as all the women who had been hunting look down towards her. “I haven’t seen anything this messy since Rosalie was still new,” she says, though she sounds more amused than anything.

Rosalie takes her time down the stairs to the muckroom as Eli recounts a vicious battle fought by sticking her arm down a hole under the tree to pull a rabbit out.

Edyth sat on the porch steps, looking very mulish. “Little Edie here tried to console me for having to take a life – as though I’ve never killed before,” Eli adds, brows dancing in amusement at the redhead’s sulky posture.

Rosalie always enjoys Edyth getting knocked off her high horse. Esme dashes off to fetch a few ripped up shirts and a bucket of water for them to clean off before they walked into the house. Carine begins to strip off calmly and Eli seems about to do the same.

Rosalie instantly became missmish, saying, “I’ll leave you all to it,” and made to return into the house.

But Esme waves her off, “No, I don’t want Eli breaking my bucket – you brought her here,” Esme says sternly, “you help her clean up.”

Rosalie frowns a little, hoping to keep a bit more mystery about her, but when Eli’s thick fingers circle her wrist and give her a prompting tug back towards her, she sways over and smiles as Eli peels the last of her old shirt from herself.

“Thank ye for the help,” Eli says, grinning as Rosalie takes a rag and wrings it out a little. She averted her gaze from Eli’s face, trying to remain coy as she wipes down Eli’s torso.

Eli had a thick belly, not fat or round, but she was wide. Her breasts were high on her chest, flat and spread. And incredibly small, not large enough to droop at all, as Rosalie’s had a habit of doing.

She was quiet as she rubbed off all the grime from Eli’s chest, she felt a little like she was in a trance. This captivating woman in her hands wasn’t like anyone she had ever met before. As Rosalie becomes accustomed to the reverence, she begins to wonder why Eli herself was so quiet.

Glancing up, Rose saw that someone else had Eli’s attention. Wide-eyed and mouth agape – Eli was staring at Carine.

Carine had also stripped down and was washing his forearms. His torso was bare, and revealed the strange quality he had. On his chest were no nipples, but uniform grooves stretching from his sternum to just under his armpits.

“What … happened?” Eli asks him slowly, looking confused.

Carine calmly meets her gaze, “Scraped them off myself, dear,” he says, smiling politely as Eli gasps, registering that the grooves were careful finger-marks. Carine had cleaned off by then, though, and absently pets the girl’s curly head as he moves his way inside. Eli meets Rosalie’s gaze, still looking very flustered.

But Rosalie only smiles a little. “I hope you have no inclination to do the same,” she says lightly, tossing the pink rag into the bucket, handing Eli an undershirt that she carefully peels down her torso, “I think I like these,”

Eli winks, grabbing Rosalie by his hips and pressing her closer. “I hope you do!” Rosalie laughs, the weight of Eli on her belly sending a thrill up her spine.

Edyth pushes past both of them, making Eli jolt with surprise, as the redhead glares at them, “I’m going inside and it’s my virtuous and kindly nature alone that halts me from locking you all out!”

Eli moved and spoke with no elegance or lady-like mannerisms what-so-ever. Esme had made a point to have the woman dressed as comfortably as possible – similar to the sweaters and suits Carine had a fondness for as well. But, with some glaring differences.

“ _Suspenders_ sir!” Eli had declared, looking at the pair of trousers Carine had dressed in for work. “Can’t we go with the Hollywood look?” she’d asked, lingering over a picture of men’s trousers from the catalog Edyth had brought home.

Though she had specifically, kindly, asked for a pair of over-alls. Her own clothes – her elder brother’s – had been stained with her blood and badly torn.

Rosalie nodded amicably. “We shall get you a pair of smarter pants as well,” she says, already fussing for her hat.

“That won’t be necessary!” Eli says and watches with overt worry as Rosalie places her hat carefully over her curls.

“I want to,” Rosalie says, smiling to assuage Eli’s unhappy look, sure that the idea of the money involved had made Eli uncomfortable. “I like doing what I want,” she adds, and Eli musters up a small grimace.

“I can order the clothes on my own, Rose,” Edyth tells her, picking up her gloves from the sideboard. “Surely you’d rather stay here,” she says pointedly, looking over at where Eli immediately brightens.

“I trust you, Edie!” Eli tells the redhead cheerfully and Edyth gives her a smart nod.

Rosalie scowls while looking between the two of them. “No, I’d rather come along,” she snaps back. _Pest, pest, pest, pest, pest_. She thinks testily. Edyth’s good humour evaporates and she shrugs once, slipping out the front door while also opening her sun parasol.

“Well I’m leaving now,” the woman grouses.

Eli frowns once again. “Could I go with you?” she asks as Rosalie rolls her eyes and opens the door after Edyth had stormed out.

Rosalie shook her head but by the way Em’s head hangs like a poor old dog prompts Rosalie to pet her cheek lightly. “One day. This way I can surprise you,” Rosalie says, waving at the woman as she hurries after Edyth.

“You _are_ a pest!” Rosalie declares again, slipping under the shade of the parasol. It was overcast today, but treacherous sun occasionally peeked through the clouds. The best weather for them was a light drizzle. No one ever paid attention when it drizzled.

Edyth frowns. “She wanted to stay close to _you_ , pest,” she says just as sharply.

Rosalie shook her head. “I’m aware,” her tone is droll. “My plan is working perfectly, thank you,” she didn’t need to elaborate, Edyth had already nosed her way into her head as always. Rosalie wanted Eli to miss her a little, but it would make her all the more pleased to receive the clothes that Rose would carefully pick out for her.

But Edyth only wrinkles her nose and rolls her eyes. “I think it’s a silly plan and that you are a silly girl!” she declares, “she already wants you, you don’t need to prove anything to her.”

Rosalie scowls, her hackles rising as _yet again_ Edyth’s terrible habit of bossing people around showed up. “You can try and read every thought in my head but the fact of the matter is Edyth, you don’t know how to understand a woman’s charms – you don’t have any.”

Edyth shrugs her off, jerking back her own shade with offense. “Use your own parasol!” she snaps, and Rosalie points her own up and flicks it open lazily.

But Rosalie lets her stomp ahead, and tastes how heavy the air is – it will rain by tonight. Edyth was wrong, though she probably didn’t care enough to give Rosalie any credence. She knew she had nothing to prove to Eli – only that Eli was new and fresh and needed time to settle into their family, and perhaps Rosalie herself needed a slow pace.

“I can trust her.” Rosalie is distinctly unhappy that she sinks into old insecurities. Edyth turns back to glare at her over her shoulder.

“Why should I say?” Edyth’s tone is snide and dismissive. Rosalie doesn’t say anything because Edyth didn’t really have a reason for her huffiness. Though Edyth could at least be able to sympathize – she was also the slow type. “She thinks in pictures regardless. Everything is your face – you’re much the same.”

Rosalie wasn’t satisfied with the answer and leaves the conversation there.

The mood only lightens when they get to the department store. Edyth suffers along as Rosalie mulls over fabrics and buttons and different suspenders.

Edyth talks logistics with one of the shop girls. “We’ll need a few union suits made up … the sizes available won’t cut it, much like my brother-in-law … no, no, a guest ….”

Rosalie allows it to become background chatter, wondering about the picture she would make with Eli, when the woman was a little more stable. Eli would look quite dashing in a casual linen suit, with Rosalie on her arm looking equally as handsome. The thought cheered her immensely, and she hums lightly to herself as she picks out some plain cotton for a few union suits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I love playing around with GNC vampires ... eat your heart out smeyer


	4. Chapter 4

The woman learns swiftly – literally. As they hunted, she talked, at length, of how long a human hunt would have taken. “Crawling around all on the ground,” Eli explains as she leaps at another deer and rips into it with glee. “Not at all like this!”

She even goes for far as to go through the process of skinning the hides after she’d drained the animal – using her nails to flay the deer. She scrapes the flesh from the membrane-like stretch of skin as she chatters.

“My pa never let me skin the same age as my brothers, you know? He always said girls see enough blood already!” Eli laughed once, throwing her head back, before dropping it down just as quickly to keep working.

Carine sits on a fallen log and watches the bawdy woman with his chin in his hand. He huffs out a breath through his nose as though amused but seems just as content to watch the sinking sun as the skinning.

Rosalie is not privy to Carine’s placidity and frowns lightly as Eli works. Human or vampire – she found it distasteful.

“Was always a bit of a struggle for me to cut smoothly …. before,” Eli murmurs, almost to herself.

“Why bother?” Rosalie asks, uncomfortable as she was with the fact that they had to hunt this way in the first place.

Eli blinks up at her. “Why not? It’s a true waste otherwise. At least we can make a few bucks off a buckskin!” Eli shrugs a little, looking suddenly shy, “You got all those nice new clothes for me, too.”

“You don’t need to worry about that, my dear girl,” Carine pipes up serenely, his smile light. “You’re family now.”

“Be that as it may, I’d like to,” Eli says humbly. As Carine and Rosalie had no where else to be and all the time to spend, they watch as she peels skin from flesh. “… I wasn’t much good as a daughter. My baby sister was only fourteen,” Eli’s tone is sad, but more wistful than injured. Rosalie found herself very attentive for any information about Eli’s former life. “But she was running around helpin’ mama twice more than I could. I just … if I could have been a proper son for her, maybe I would have been a lot more useful.”

“In matters of the house, men are not very useful at all,” Carine replies. Rosalie laughs in agreement at the truism. Whether or not her father was home or abroad on business – Rosalie and her mother had the firmest control over the house.

Though Rosalie was mildly surprised that the woman said such bitter words with an otherwise mild expression. “My mother never became accustomed to having sons,” Rosalie explains. “I had two younger brothers and she never knew what to do with them. She wanted girls to pamper and prepare, she wanted pretty, eligible debutantes.”

Between the two of them, Rosalie and Eli glance back at Carine, wondering if he would also speak about his time as a human daughter. Perfectly content to meet their gaze, his smile doesn’t move at all and he says nothing.

Eli turned back to Rosalie, smiling a little, her bottom lip pushed up, like she was trying to suppress it. “I think most woman want daughters like you.”

When Rosalie thanks her, slightly flattered with the idea that Eli’s human mother would have liked her, Eli grins back. “I think I should be thankin’ _you,_ ” she says. “You took me in without a pause.”

Carine tells her not to think one bit of it, “it’s much easier going along with Rosalie’s whims,” he advises, and laughs good-naturedly as Rosalie sticks out her tongue at him.

But Eli’s corresponding booming laughs makes her belly clench. “I’m not usually so thoughtless ….” Rosalie tells her quickly. “I just wanted you,” Rosalie feels a great sense of gratification when Eli seems to almost glow after hearing the words. It propels her to say, regardless of Carine’s placid presence, in a tone that was both grave and teasing; “I’m planning on keeping you too, I hope you know.”

“You’ll get no complaints from me, angel.”


	5. Chapter 5

A few days later, Carine received a terrible little letter. From one of his old colleagues in Rochester, with whom he stayed in contact to better keep up to date with Rosalie’s hometown.

Rosalie’s mother had passed on. Rosalie was confused and shocked – her mother had been in the prime of health the last Rosalie was able to see her. But Carine gently explained that her mother had suffered greatly from Rosalie’s disappearance and had been bedridden for some months.

“I’m sorry, darling,” Carine said softly, and Esme sat clutching one of Rosalie’s hands. They had all converged in Carine’s office, ready to support Rosalie through this devastating news. Edyth and Eli sit on a couch right next to the door, as unobtrusive as possible.

Rosalie said nothing for a little while as Esme strokes her fingers, but eventually she stands and walks towards the door.

“I think I need to be alone.” Rosalie explains to them and takes Eli’s shirt collar, tugging once. Eli scrambles up, being pulled by her along to her own room.

Rosalie closes the door after them with a sigh, and looks at Eli’s concerned and worried face. “I’m sorry, Rosie."

Rosalie only pets her collar to smooth it back out, moving past her vanity table to sit at her work bench. “So am I – it’s my fault,” she stated calmly. Eli isn’t able to do more than gasp and begins to shake her head before Rosalie holds up a palm for her peace. “She always knew I wasn’t dead, I just … wish she could have known that I was safe.”

Eli comes to her side, kneeling next to her and pet her arms in a clumsy way. “There, there,” she coos.

Rosalie felt the little bubble of grief well up from her belly and into her throat; prompting her to say; “She only wanted the best things for me … a rich husband, an expensive house and sweet little babies ….” she pulls it a breath and quietly admits, “I wanted that too.”

Eli’s face remains sorry, though her voice takes on a faraway quality as she says, “Oh, I see.”

Rosalie remembers when she had proclaimed her disgust with the idea of Edyth as a partner.

  
  


_Rosalie gasps, looking between Carine and Esme after Carine reveals that he had much the same business between his legs as_ _the women_ _did. Further horrified as she thought of the mopey, judgemental little Mid-Westerner as_ _a prospect_ _. “A woman!? I don’t know what den of sin this is-”_

“ _I_ can _hear you, Rosalie!” Edyth storms down the stairs in their Rochester home, looking dark and angry, “I can hear everything and I won’t have you turn up your nose at what we are because you’ve always thought you were all wrong!” she declares, shaking her head as Esme tried to stand between them and smooth them._

“ _You wanted to get yourself a husband to prove you could want him,” Edyth pointed at her, sneering openly, “well I’ve never been so delusional!”_

“ _I am not delusional!” Rosalie snaps, a foreign hiss coming from her mouth that she’d never heard before. Carine is at her shoulder, putting a gentle hand on her arm, “I_ could _have gotten a husband they’re not very hard to get!” She shrugs off Carine and steps closer to Edyth._

“ _Speak to me like that again and I’ll snatch your tongue from your mouth,” Rosalie growls, before Esme and Carine physically pick both of the girls up and move them to different parts of the house._

  
  


Rosalie thinks back on the shocks of her newborn year and glances down at where Eli kneels patiently, leaning into her lap. “But I can’t have any of that anymore. I …” Rosalie shake her head – _I never really wanted it_ , sounded too flippant, because she had _planned_ for it. Rosalie knew that marriage was about safety, not love. So it made no difference to Rosalie if she actually _wanted_ her husband. If she wanted safety, security and stability – than she wanted a husband. There wasn’t anything else to it. She looks down at Eli curiously, “what did you want?”

Eli begins to smile, flashing her teeth. “A pretty girl. Well, as many pretty girls as I could get my hands on.” Miffed, Rosalie reaches up and squeezes Eli’s ear in her fingers, making the other woman laugh lightly, turn her cheek to lean into her hand. Her terra-cotta eyes took on a more serious quality. “… My little sisters in new dresses, with bright white lace. A pretty girl, cooking with my mama. A pretty girl, sitting with me on the porch. I could never really picture her face until now.” Eli reaches up and cups Rosalie’s cheek. She melted, slipping off the chair and sitting in Eli’s lap, letting the other woman scoop her up and hold her.

“I never had proper plans, Rosie,” Eli explains gently, “I was a bull-dagger in a small town. Women never stayed with me – they got themselves a husband, they went to the big city, they went away. They never stayed with me.” Eli looks at her in the most gentlest way and if Rosalie were anymore boneless in her embrace she’d drip onto the floor. “They never said they were going to keep me.”

Rosalie giggles, feeling giddy at the words, “Well, I’m selfish.”

“None else said keepin’ me is selfish,” Eli whispers back, “and no sacrifice.”

“ _You_ sacrificed, not me.”

Eli shakes her head, as though trying to cast off this descent into sweet-talk. “I know what I want now,” Eli grins, “I want all the time in the world, with you.”

Rose opens her mouth to the press of Em’s tongue, and whimpers again, this time slightly pained, as the foreign venom sends a sharp sting through her entire jaw, the burning pain seeping into the gum between her teeth.

Eli rips herself away, covering her mouth with one large hand. “I’m sorry!” She shouts, but she looks so confused Rosalie hums out a dry chuckle as she rubs her fingers over her own tingling lips. It was like biting into fresh pineapple.

“It’s alright.” Rosalie murmurs, and sighs a little. “It just takes some getting used to.” She explains.

Eli looked, for a moment, like a forlorn and scolded puppy. “But I wanted to taste your pearl, Rosie.” She says with a little frown.

Her frank words startle Rosalie completely out of any lingering melancholy, that she only stares, wide-eyed, until Eli begins to laugh, though uncertainty begins to grow on her face. “You want me to?” She asks, scratching the back of her head.

Flustered, and embarrassed that she was flustered, Rosalie narrows her eyes, mouth puckered into a bratty pout. “Well, you’ll have to wait until we become … acclimated.” She says, attempting to keep her voice level and even as Eli beams in her face.

“How long will that take?” Her eagerness made Rosalie’s stomach tighten – not with nerves, but her own excitement.

But she hesitated, frowning a little. “I’m not … sure,” she admits quietly, she felt very exposed sitting in Eli’s lap and thinking about how they could embrace. It certainly wasn’t any proper type of conversation and Rosalie was a lady. “I’ve never _asked_.”

Eli inhales slowly, her face looking pinched, “I can be a patient woman, Rosie,” she explains in a steady voice, “But between these slow lessons and this pretty girl in my lap ….” Eli pouts, and Rosalie huffs out a little laugh.

“What did you want again?” Rosalie asks, tapping her chin and squinting at Eli, who begins to grin.

“All the time in the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by that 'the forest is full of free husbands!' post except gayer.


End file.
